


Angus McDonald And The Case of The Forgotten Family

by AutisticJunoSteel



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Campaign: Balance (The Adventure Zone), F/M, Lup gets out of the umbrella early, M/M, Major Character Undeath, Taako Adopts Angus McDonald, no beta we die like men
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-12
Updated: 2020-11-12
Packaged: 2021-03-09 18:55:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,712
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27521134
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AutisticJunoSteel/pseuds/AutisticJunoSteel
Summary: Taako adopts Angus. One day, Angus has a case go wrong, and he hides in a cave for safety. He accidentally breaks an umbrella, and makes a new friend. He agrees to help her when she discovers her family can no longer remember her.
Relationships: (ships dont really come in until later), Angus McDonald & Taako, Barry Bluejeans/Lup, Kravitz/Taako (The Adventure Zone), Lup & Angus McDonald, Lup & Angus McDonald & Taako, Lup & Taako (The Adventure Zone)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 25





	Angus McDonald And The Case of The Forgotten Family

**Author's Note:**

> I was going to write a few more chapters before I start posting but I'm too impatient. Also as I was rereading this, I kinda hate this chapter, but I like the concept of this fic and I don't have the energy to rewrite it so. Here it is. Anyway if this is inaccurate to D&D rules, that would not be surprising, I've barely played. I also don't like this title, I might change it.

Angus only took this case two hours ago, and it’s already gone to shit. It had started off a pretty simple missing persons case in Phandalin, but as it turned out, the missing guy had been taken to be used as a sacrifice by a local necromantic cult, and they didn’t like that Angus was poking around. They waited until he was pretty far outside of Phandalin to ambush him, though, so he probably wouldn’t be able to easily get help. He knew his father, Taako, had said to call him if anything happened, but he was far too busy running for his life. And he knew he was too far away to do anything, anyway.  
And, so, he was running for his life. But, as he was running, he spotted an opening to a cave. He ducked in, and kept running.  
He ran for a while, and the only sounds he could hear were his own frantic footsteps and the sound of waves, and they were eventually joined by the sound of his heavy breathing as he kept running, but he still didn’t let himself think he might be safe.  
As he entered another chamber, he found himself faced with a vault door, so he turned, and was greeted with the sight of a skeleton, wearing a red cloak and clutching an umbrella. Angus was startled, but this wasn’t the first corpse he’d seen, despite not yet having even turned nine. After all, he had been there when his father was framed for the murder of forty people. Unless whatever got her was going to get him next, he just needed to focus on running.  
And then he tripped. And fell. Directly onto the skeleton. With a loud crunch. He looks down, and realizes he broke the umbrella in her arms, and that the rest of her was crumbling away into dust, but he didn’t have much time to focus on this, as the room then filled with flame. But it didn’t burn him, somehow.  
As the flame cleared, he saw her. A lich, clad in flowing red.  
“I- I’m sorry for accidentally destroying your corpse and breaking your umbrella.”  
“It’s fine, I can tell you didn’t mean to. And, if you hadn’t, who knows how long I would have been trapped in there, so really, thanks, kiddo,” she said, and she went to go rustle his hair, but her hand just passed through him. “Right, I’m not exactly, uh, corporeal. You think I’d be used to that by now, and yet- Hey, wait, what is a kid doing here? Wait- holy shit, you’re injured, what kind of asshole hurts kids?”  
He explained the situation to her.  
“Right, well, I’m gonna go charbroil some cultists,” she says, floating away. There’s distant sounds of a scuffle, followed by a scream or two before she floated back into the room. “Do you have any family?”  
“Yeah, just my dad though. Oh! I probably missed my usual time to call him, he’s probably worried sick. I know he doesn’t like my job, he thinks it’s too dangerous.” Angus got his stone out, and called his father. “Not sure if I’ll get a signal in here, but it’s worth a shot.”  
“Ango?” Taako’s voice echoed through the cave.  
“Hey! Sorry for not calling at the usual time, I got caught up with the case. Thankfully, though, it should be over.”  
“Oh? You found the guy or whatever it was this time.”  
“Yeah, it was a missing person’s case. Then it turned out to be a murder. But things should be dealt with now.”  
“Well, at least it’s dealt with?”  
“Yeah. I gotta go, I need to wrap up this case, and deal with one other thing.”  
“Alright, bye. Stay safe, and try to get home before dark. Love you.”  
“Love you too, dad.” Angus hung up then, and turned to the lich. He could tell she was feeling some kind of emotion, he just didn’t know what.  
“That’s your father?”  
“Yep!”  
“Has he ever mentioned a **twin sister**?”  
“Wh- How did you make that noise with your mouth?”  
“What noise?”  
“The static!”  
“Static? Shit! **The Voidfish**!”  
“There it is again.”  
“That’s bad. I’m honestly not sure how to explain it? It’s a magic thing that erases information.”  
“There wasn’t any static there, and that explanation made some sense.”  
“Oh. Oh no. This might mean that, depending on what she did, my own family might not be able to remember me.” Her form started to break down with this grim realization.  
“Well, miss uh- ma’am, if this can be fixed, I’d be willing to help you! I know what it’s like to not have family, I was an orphan before my dad adopted me, though even if I hadn’t been in a situation that allowed me to better relate, I’d still help you!”  
“Thanks, kid. Also, the name’s Lup, by the way.”  
“Alright, well, it’s nice to meet you, miss Lup!” He surveyed the room, which he had thus far been too distracted to do, and noticed the only thing left of her body was an umbrella, and there was a large vault door in the room. Only one of these things caught his interest at that moment. “Do you want your umbrella? I broke it, but it could probably be fixed. But, you were trapped in it, so I understand why you might not want it.  
She thought about this for a second. “I guess?” Angus picked it up, and stuffed the two halves in his bag. “Now, c’mon, we should get out of this cave.”  
They walked back to Phandalin together, and he went and reported the situation to the militia, and when the sun began to bathe everything in a golden glow before it slipped into darkness, it was finally time to go home. He walked to the ticket counter and slapped some gold on the counter, standing on tippy-toes to speak to the man. “One child ticket and one adult ticket,” he requests, pointing to Lup as he said the latter half of the sentence.  
The person behind the counter looked nervous, they’d clearly never seen a lich before. “Um. Since your, uhh,”  
“Aunt,” Angus lied. Or at least, he thought he was lying.  
“Your aunt is noncorporeal, it’s railway policy that she doesn’t need to pay for a ticket since she doesn’t really take up space.” He’s pretty sure that’s not true, the man had probably just never seen a lich before and was intimidated. But he’ll take a discount, so he doesn’t comment.  
Lup moved to float above the bench Angus sat down on to wait for the train, looking at him. “Why am I going with you to Neverwinter?”  
“Because if I’m going to inspect your case, I would prefer to have you nearby. If you could carry a stone of farspeech, I’d say we should use those to communicate, but given your spectral nature, I assume you can’t really interact with objects easily.”  
“Yeah, ok, that makes sense.”  
They sat in silence, Angus read a book from his bag and Lup was lost in thought, until the train arrived. They got on the train, and found a car to settle into for the ride to Neverwinter.  
“I just realized you still haven’t said your name.”  
“I’m Angus.”  
“So, Angus, what’s that book you’re reading?”  
“It’s called Caleb Cleveland: Kid Cop and…”  
He spent a while rambling about the books, he usually didn’t get much of a chance to talk about these things with anyone but his dad, who’d heard it all a hundred times. Of course, Taako was just glad his kid found something to be happy about, though he wished Angus had gone with a less dangerous choice of career to aspire for.  
“So, you’re a nerd then. And don’t worry, I mean that in a good way. Most of my family are total nerds. And I am too, though no-one else will ever hear me admit it.” Angus laughed a little about this.  
“Can you tell me anything about your family or will it just turn to that static?”  
“I guess we’ll see. Let’s see, there’s my brother. He and I are both awesome wizards, and even better chefs.” Angus thought that that kinda sounds like Taako, and then the rest of that thought fizzled away into static.  
She spoke more about her family, and Angus could tell even from these simple descriptions that he wanted to meet these people. They held lively conversation until Angus fell asleep, and Lup cast mage hand to move a sweater he had set down over him like a blanket.  
She woke Angus when they arrived in Neverwinter, and helped the sleepy child off the train. “Bye, Miss Lup. If I’m going to continue to investigate your case, we should schedule a time to meet up again. I have no cases tomorrow, so would tomorrow afternoon in the library work for you?”  
“I don’t have anything to do, so yeah, any time is fine.”  
“Okay!” Angus waved goodbye to her, and began the walk back to the small apartment he shared with his father. He pushed open the front door to find his dad half-asleep at the table in the tiny kitchen.  
“Hey, kiddo, how was- Are you injured? What happened?” Taako sprang up from the table, exhaustion forgotten upon seeing his son injured.  
“It’s nothing. I’m fine. Just a little scratch.”  
“That’s more than just a little scratch.”  
“Hey, dad, does the name Lup mean anything to you?” He was sure she somehow knew him, but the static that filled his head made it impossible to think beyond that.  
“No. I don’t think so.” He raised a hand to his forehead. “I have a headache, I’m going to lie down. We should talk more in the morning.”  
“I’ll go to bed soon, too.” Angus went to his room, and before he started preparing for bed, he grabbed a notebook off his shelf, and after checking that it was empty, he began taking notes on this new mystery.  
After writing down what little information he had, he changed into pajamas and finished getting ready for bed, and went to sleep. Even after sleeping on the train, he was still tired.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading, you can find me on Tumblr at rose-the-emo-cryptid.


End file.
